Undergarment.



A. WYLlE. UNDERGARMENT. APPLICATION FILED DEC-27,1912.

1 ,1 54,280. Patented Sept. 21, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WITNESSES,

A. WYUE. UNDERGARMENT- APPLICATION FILED DEC-27, 1912.

1,154,280. I Patented Sept. 21, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

INYEN'I'UR.

WITNESSES- A. WYLIE. UNDERGARMENT. APPLICATION FILED 050.21.1912.

1,1 54,280. V PatentedSept. 21, 1915.

V 3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

FIG. '7.

FIG: 5.

WI 'I'N B55135 INY'ENTUR ANNA W'Y'LIE- BY j wwhfiwli Emmy COLUMBIA PLANOORAPH cO-.WASMINGTON. D. c.

ANNA WYLIE, or" EooKvILL oEN'rEE, NEW YORK.

UN DEBGARMENT.

Application filed December 27, 1912.

To all whom it may concern 7 Be it known that I, ANNA WYLIE, of Rockville Center, in the county of Nassau and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Undergarments for Both Sexes, Considered as Articles of Wearing- Apparel, of which invention the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawing, constitutes a specification.

These improvements aredesigned for embodiment in combination or union suits for underwearfor both sexes,1but are especially applicable to ladies drawers. They are capable of application to many styles of drawers already made up, by slight alteration of the garment.

It is well understood that in the manu facture of underwear for women as carried on at the present time, most drawers are made with anopening from the middle of the waistband at the back, down to and through the crotch and up slightly in front, thus dividing the garment, practically into two halves, the inside opposing edges of which meet on the median line of the back of the wearer. The tendency in wearing drawers so made is for the two halves to gap in the back, or draw apart, so as toleave an opening in the back from the waist down to the crotch, thus rendering the garment uncomfortable and exposing the person of the wearer. To guard against such gaping and exposure various expedients have been resorted to with varying degrees of success. Sometimes flaps have been attached to each half and so shaped as in use to be capable of being overlapped and thus close this opening and protect the person. In other cases the halves have been left of sufficient width that they could be gathered in at the waist, thus leaving sufficient fullness to form overlapping protection and closure of any gap which might occur. Sometimes one of these flaps has been provided with a button-hole adapted, when the flap is folded across the gap to engage a button which is sewed to the opposite half of the garment. Nearly, if not all of these expedients fail to accomplish the objects for which they are designed. Those .7

which are gathered in at the waist line carry too much cloth and in mild weather are too warm and uncomfortable besides beingliable in use not to straighten out smoothly but to get into folds, bunches and wrinkles which are disagreeable.

The object of this invention is to get rid of Specification of Letters IEatent.

Patented'Sept; 21', 1915.

Serial No. 738,818.

as much of the superabundant cloth found in these overlapping flaps as possible, which is accomplished by splitting the garment on the back into two symmetrical halves along the median line and interpose between the adjacent placket edges of said halves an elastic, resilient web or fabric, termed a placket-guard which constantly exerts a contractile force, the tendency of which is automatically todraw toward each other the opposed placket edges and hold them in close contact without overlapping, so as both to conceal and protect the body of the wearer underneath, and to retain the back of the garment in a flat, unwrinkled,'and smooth condition.

The invention is fully disclosed in the drawings wherein Figure 1 showsa view of the backside of a union garment which exhibits one form of embodiment of 'my invention. Fig. 2 is a view of the placket guard employed for drawing together the edges of the placket. Fig. 3 is a front view of a garment embodying the improvements found in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a back view of a garment of ordinary construction. Fig. 5-is a back view of a garment embodying some features of my invention with the adjacent placketedges drawn aside to expose the placket guard l. Fig. 6 is a rear view of a mans union garment showing my improved crotch gore inserted. Fig. 7 is a front view of the same garment. Fig. 8 is a front view of the crotch gore.

- The drawings illustrate what is well known as a one-piece combination garment, that is to say, the waist, trunk and legs constitute one integral piece and is made from a web of tubular, knit fabric by making the neck, sleeves and legs by cutting to shape and seaming up in the usual way. The bifurcation for the crotch-opening extends from the waist line at 6, Fig. 1, down through the crotch and up to the front to 16, Fig. 3. To afford ample room for thehips two additional pieces, 5, 5, are attached, ,one to each side of the placket the seam run ning on the line 6, 17, 7, 9 and 6-18-79,

Fi .v 1. Thus attached, their inside margins just meet on the median line, 6, 13, 9.

To effect and maintain closed relation ofribbed fabric 4, Figs. 1 and 2, which is at tached to side-flaps 5, 5, on the lines of stitching 6178-10, and 6188 and 10. This web 4 is cut substantially to the shape shown in Fig. 2 for special reasons. The edges between 8 and 11, Fig. 2, are cut away to leave a narrow tongue 12. This tongue closes the upper part of the placket gap and by reason of its very narrowness is more retractile than a wider piece would be. The lower or wider part 810, S-10, is located well down the back where in practice the widest distention of the flaps 5, 5, occurs. This piece is knit with avfirm welt across its lower edge from 10 to 10 which will yield and stretch before it will tear or .rip and which will not ravel nor roll up.

In the embodiment of my invention as shown in Fig. 5, in order toshow the placket guard 4 in its proper position in relation to the adjacent parts of the garment, the

placket flaps 5, 5, are gathered up from the under side and turned back upon the back side of the garment, being distended in doing soin a way to expose the outer side of the guard 4 and show its margin which is indicated by 'the dotted lines,

17-81O10 818 and 17. In making up a garment the tongue of the placketguard is stitched to the waist on the line w, w, from d, to b, and to the placket flaps 5, 5, on the median line a, g, and down the lateral edges from the top to the bottom on the lines 17-8-10, and 18-810. Thus, by making this piece of T-shape substan tially as shown, all superfluous cloth across the back of thewearer is dispensed with, which contributes greatly to the comfort of the wearer in hot weather while its contractile power is increased. Much greater width is given to the bottom part of the placket guard to allow for wider placket flaps 5, 5, to avoid rippingor tearing of the garment in use, than to the tongue 12, of the upper part.

My improvements as applied to male attire are shown in Figs. 6., 7, and 8. In union suits for men the back is left open from below about the point 0, down to the crotch and the placket guard 1 is inserted and held to close the placket opening precisely as it isin the female garments shown in Figs. 1 and 5. In addition thereto a crotch gore 75, Fig. 8, is inserted in the front part of the crotch opening as shown indotted lines 56, 57, 58, 59, 57, and 56 in'Fig. 7. The

Copies of this patent may be obtained for distention of the and through the crotch to any desired dis' tance and to the rear far enough to meet the bottom edge of the placket guard if desired. lVhen the garment with the gore is in use it folds transversely'on the line 57 ,57, so that its wide base folds up rearwardly and may serve in mens garments as a suspensory when such support is needed.

I therefore claim as my'invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, the following:

1. A union undergarment divided on the' median line from the back of the'waist down to and through the crotch, the placket being closed by a web of resilient elastic fabric narrow at its upper end and substantially wider at its lower end, and extending from the waist line well down toward the hips, the lateral'margins of which are attached to or near to the placket edges, a V-shaped goreinserted in the lower front gap of the crotch opening having its lateral margins attached to the inner margins of the leg portions of the garment along the leg seams, and having a free opening between the bottom edge of the placket guard and the rear transverse edge of the crotch gore, substantially as specified. a a

2. A union undergarment divided on the median line from the back of the waist down to and through the crotch, the placket being closed by a web of resilient elastic fabric, narrow at its upper end and substantially wider at its lower end, and extending from the waist line well down below the hips, the lateral edges of which are attached to the placket adjacent the edges of the latter, and adapted by its contractile character to draw the placket edges together without overlapping them, substantially as specified.

In witness whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

ANNA WYLIE. Witnesses: T

' GRACE E. MARVIN,

EARL J. BENNETT.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). G. 

